Candidates in Bloomfield hitting the bricks and knocking on doors in final days of primary preparation

A Democratic primary for town council will be held Tuesday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m

With the Democratic primary for town council just days away, the endorsed slate and a group of challengers are trying to make their case to potential voters.

The town committee endorsed slate held a meet-and-greet attended by about 40 people at a local bagel shop for two hours Thursday evening and then resumed knocking on doors

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“When that was over we hit the bricks,” Mayor Suzette DeBeatham-Brown said Friday. “We’re not taking anything for granted.”

DeBeatham-Brown said the message the group is trying to convey as it canvasses neighborhoods across town is that they want residents’ support based on the work they have done over the past two years, including holding the line on taxes, road repairs, beginning improvements to Pershing Park and attracting new businesses.

“Starting the work is great but finishing the work is better,” DeBeatham-Brown said. “Help us finish the work.”

For the weekend and into Monday, DeBeatham-Brown said, the plan is to continue reaching out to potential voters.

The slate, which is on row A of the ballot, includes DeBeatham and fellow incumbents, Deputy Mayor Rickford Kirton, Kevin Gough and David Mann, and challengers Stephanie Calhoun and Danielle Wong.

The challenge slate, which will be on row B, includes incumbents Kenneth McClary and Jennifer Marshall-Nealy, and challengers Anthony Harrington and Vanessa Williams.

McClary said Friday that the group has knocked on more than 3,000 doors in every corner of town since they began their effort to unseat the endorsed slate and that they would continue to do so through Monday.

“Our message has been that we’re going to put people before party and community before corporations,” McClary said. “We’re making sure we know the pulse of the people.”

McClary said key issues among potential voters that they have talked to are increased class sizes at schools brought on by a council-mandated $3.5 million reduction to the board of education’s requested increase, and a desire for lower taxes.

McClary said the board of education warned the council in advance that layoffs would be necessary if the reduction was instituted but incumbents on row A voted for it anyway. He said the group has also had to explain why there is another Democratic primary following the one that put him and the incumbents in office two years ago.

“We tell them [The four incumbents] have become the machine we rallied against,” McClary said.

Tuesday’s primary is for registered Democrats only. The deadline for unaffiliated voters to register as Democrats to vote in the primary in person is Monday at noon.